The Role And Status Of Women in Weimar Germany Flashcards
What was Kinder, Kuche, Kirche?
LIteral translation is ‘Children, Kitchen, Church’. Common phrase before WWI to sum up the role of women as homemakers and moral support for the famiy.
What was the German Civil Code of 1900?
-Women couldn’t vote
-Single women could study for a profession such as lwa
but couldn’t take the exams to qualify and practice
-Married women had no legal status; a man had to do their
legal business
How did the role of women change during WWI?
-They took the place of men in factories, on farms and
almost every aspect of life.
-By the end of the war, 75% of women of working age
were employed.
-The war meant that 1.6 million men were killed, so women without men AKA ‘surplus women’ (who would not find husbands as there were not enough men) became significant
How were women given the vote?
-On 12 November 1918, the emergency govt gave women
the vote.
-There was a 90% turnout of women at the first elections. -1919-32: 112 women were elected to the Reichstag
What did the constitution say about women?
-In principle, women had equal rights (Article 109)
-Marriage should be an equal union
-Women should be able to enter the professions
-However this was what should be, and didn’t change the
legal status of women under the Civil Code
How was the Reichstag split on the issues of the German Civil Code?
-Mostly SPD members supported equality and women’s
rights.
-Others believed women should return to being wives and
mothers
-There was concern over the falling birth rate and the high
divorce rate
What were Weimar policies on womens work?
That they should give up jobs to returning soldiers. By the first post-war census. the percentage of the workforce that was female was almost back to pre-war levels. However. work was expanding so even if the percentage of the workforce was similar, the actual numbers of women working rose
What were ‘white blouse’ jobs?
Clerical and shop work that was traditionally done by women, and so they did not have to give these jobs up to the men.
What were the views on women working?
- The idea of single women working was more accepted than married women working
- Single women working was seen as a temporary activity until they married
- Single women weren’t expected to pursue a career
What was the opposition to women in professional careers?
-Faced hostility+discrimination from male colleagues
-Married women=practical hurdles;school day ended at
lunch,had to arrange for childcare/work at home/part-time
-Most women were doing poorly paid work from home
-Other women were working in poorly paid manual
jobs;trade unions were male dominated and opposed
equal pay
-Hostile to ‘double earners’ (married women bringing a
second wage into the home) because they were fighting
hard enough for men to be paid enough to support a family
What were ‘new women’?
-Young, educated, unmarried women who had come of
age during the war.
-Wanted independance, many who found work, largely in ‘white blouse’ jobs chose to abandon traditional female behaviour
-Wore revealing clothes, short hair, smoke+drank, behaved with freedom of a man, like flappers in USA.
-Took advantage of contraception to enjoy sexual freedom
-City based, part of racy city culture in 1920s
What were the views on ‘new women’?
-Politicians and the media criticisde these women, calling
them immoral and urging them to marry and settle down
-Advertising and film industries loved them, producing glorified images of emancipated, achieving girls
-These images were blamed for seducing ‘good girls’ to move to the city to pursue this dream of a NR rather than settling down and living a sensible life
What was the reality of ‘new women’?
-Faced wage discrimination and sexual discrimination
-Many did as expected and settled down to marriage
-They may have hoped for a more equal marriage than
their mothers had, but they were unlikely to achieve it.
What effect did the Depression and the rise in unemployment have on women working?
- Even more hostility towards working women
- More desperation among those women who were the breadwinners in their families
- Neither men nor women could press for reforms or better working conditions as jobs were scarcer
- Women= cheaper to employ, suffered less steep level of unemployment than men
What did Chancellor Bruning decree to attempt to reduce unemployment for men?
On 30th May 1932, he passed a decree allowing for the dismissal of married women in govt service if they had husbands who wer earning. The same was happening in privately owned industries.
